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Research firm IDC has released its estimates on worldwide mobile phone sales for the second quarter of 2013, showing Apple's iPhone growth slowing as it posted its second-lowest iPhone growth rate in four years with only 20% year-over-year growth compared to 52.3% growth for the entire market. However, Apple maintained a hold on the number two spot for smartphone makers behind Samsung, as other competitors LG, Lenovo, and ZTE failed to hit the 6% mark during the quarter.

Apple posted its second-lowest year-over-year iPhone growth rate in almost four years as some buyers presumably held off on iPhone purchases in advance of an expected next-generation device launch this fall. Nonetheless, the 31.2 million iPhones Apple shipped last quarter was impressive as its flagship iPhone 5 model, which has been in the market for three quarters, was faced with additional global competition in the form of Samsung's Galaxy S4 and HTC's critically-acclaimed One models. Apple's growth is likely to accelerate globally assuming it launches a lower-cost iPhone and continues to penetrate prepaid markets in the quarters to come.

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Apple continues to benefit from the growth of smartphones, as it held onto its spot as the number three manufacturer in the world in looking at total mobile phone shipments. Apple's overall unit shipments were up 5.2% from previous quarter, while overall market share rose 0.8% allowing the company to grab an overall 7.2% market share for the quarter.

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How in the hell is the lead to that "Apple's growth slows" instead of "everybody on this chart sees year-to-year growth?" Apple grew when you compare apples to apples -- all smartphones since Apple sells no dumbphones -- along with Samsung, LG and "others" the expense of Nokia.

Reports like this that make the mainstream media are why my mom tells me things like "I heard the new iPhone wasn't selling well because of that new connector."

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All the more reason why apple will benefit immensely from a lower cost phone that can be introduced to markets that are predominantly unsubsidised. Or even in current subsidised markets to create a $0 upfront payment for a handset as soon as the device is released.

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Impressive numbers from Samsung. iOS 7 is definitely make or break for Apple.

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Nah, if they get in a jam they can just ship 10 million phones that will never sell through, and problem solved! Anyway, it's about time Apple returned the favor and ripped off one of Samsung's "innovations".

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macrumors 6502

How in the hell is the lead to that "Apple's growth slows" instead of "everybody on this chart sees year-to-year growth?" Apple grew when you compare apples to apples -- all smartphones since Apple sells no dumbphones -- along with Samsung, LG and "others" the expense of Nokia.

Reports like this that make the mainstream media are why my mom tells me things like "I heard the new iPhone wasn't selling well because of that new connector."

Click to expand...

The first chart is for smartphones only, so it is apples to apples. Apple grew only 20% since last year. Samsung smartphones now outsell Apple 2 to 1

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How in the hell is the lead to that "Apple's growth slows" instead of "everybody on this chart sees year-to-year growth?" Apple grew when you compare apples to apples -- all smartphones since Apple sells no dumbphones -- along with Samsung, LG and "others" the expense of Nokia.

Reports like this that make the mainstream media are why my mom tells me things like "I heard the new iPhone wasn't selling well because of that new connector."

Click to expand...

The RATE of Apple's growth is slowing. And Apple's smartphone market share shrunk even though the overall smartphone market grew by approximately 50%.

According to the CONTEXT figures, sales of tablets rose 137 percent in the first half of 2013, with low-end Android devices leading that trend.

“In the consumer segment, while the iPad remains a popular choice, we have seen tablet demand steadily driven by low end Android offerings”, said Marie Christine Pygott, Senior Analyst at CONTEXT. “The increasing availability of attractively priced Android systems means consumers can easily buy a tablet as an additional product to their home PC, which means they postpone the replacement of their traditional PC.”

According to the CONTEXT data, Android tablets now account for 61.2 percent of the Western European tablet market, more than double the 25.1 percent recorded the same time last year. Apple iOS devices, meanwhile, fell to 37.2 percent of Western European tablet market sales by distribution, from 71.2 percent at the same time last year.

This analysis also screens out the effect of Windows 8, credited in some quarters with helping to drive increased tablet market share and cut into Apple’s tablet lead, but in fact with little to no impact, according to CONTEXT.

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''

Android tablets: 61.2%
Ipad: 37.2%
other: 1.6%

2013 First Quarter

Wouldn't be surprised to see Android Tablet at 75% market share in the near future. Something like this within 2 years....

Android tablets: 75%
Ipad: 20%
Window tablet: 5%

Why? A top of the line 7" 16GB HD Android tablets are now on sales for $159...It's hard to compete with that.

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The main thing I conclude from looking at both tables is that smartphones are cannibalizing feature phones worldwide, hence the strong smartphone growth for most manufacturers except Apple despite a moderate growth for phones in general.

With super-cheap Android phones becoming the norm in emerging countries, feature phones will soon be a thing of the past. Although I doubt Apple will ever release a low-end device (maybe a mid-range one), it will get increasingly difficult to split phones into different categories as now they're all going to be "smartphones".

Obviously Apple's worldwide smartphone marketshare will suffer from this effect and they will get a perception problem (it already started) regardless of its performance as a high-end smartphone manufacturer.

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Imagine what the price of some smartphones in China and India are? Especially the knock-off brands (KIRF).

When all mobile phones become smartphones, if Apple holds on to 10%+ market share that is more than enough. If they hold 20%+ that would mean they make more $$$ than everyone else combined!

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You do know Samsung numbers are mostley from there top end phones right? Like the gs4,note 2 and gs3 sales or did you some how think Samsung's 23billion pure profit in the last 6 months is from 40 dollar phones?

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